The majority of my 2017
columns were inspired by some
controversial topics.

Admittedly, I was hesitant to
springboard off media coverage
of the initial 19 presidential
executive orders and the
Harvey Weinstein incidents.

But here’s the fascinating thing:
Both columns—along with
others that focused on radical
transparency in benefits design;
workplace flexibility; paid
leave for self-care, parental and
child care; company values; and
even Gwyneth Paltrow—created
lots of conversation. In fact, I
take pride that I received more
questions, LinkedIn messages
and tweets during the last

12 months than in the prior
couple of years. It’s my goal
to spur dialogue and debate
that consider both employee
benefits and how they help
HR leaders attract and retain
employees.

This left me wondering if any
company currently addresses
most of the challenges I wrote
about this year. I thought all
was lost until I picked up a copy
of Patagonia founder Yvon
Chouinard’s 10th-anniversary
update of his book Let My People
Go Surfing: 10 More Years of
Business Unusual.

The retailer’s mission is
“to use business to inspire and
implement solutions to the
environmental crisis.” What does
this have to do with employees?

Chouinard writes that “there
is a powerful connection
between treating our things
as disposable and treating the
people who make these things
as disposable.” This premise led
the company to one of the best
employee-attraction ratios: For
every open position, Patagonia
averages 900 applications. Check
the box on attraction!

On diversity and inclusion,
Patagonia aims to have at least
half of upper-management
positions held by women, a
target it fulfills in the U.S.,
though it reports it has work to
do in Europe and Japan.

The company values
employees who live rich and
rounded lives. The aptly named
flextime policy—Let My People
Go Surfing—allows employees
to work flexible hours as long
as the work gets done with no
negative impact on co-workers.

Workers take advantage of thispolicy to “catch a good swell,go bouldering for an afternoon,Patagonia offerscomprehensive health insuranceto all employees—evenpart-timers. The companycafeteria provides healthy,organic food, and mostemployee bathrooms houseshowers to accommodatelunchtime exercise.

Patagonia’s most famousperk, however, is its on-sitecorporate child-care centerthat opened in 1984. Thecenter provides programs andservices for children as youngas eight weeks old throughkindergarten. School-agechildren are picked up at theend of their school day andbrought to the center so parentsdon’t have to make the drive orworry about after-school care.

The company’s parental-leave policy complements the
child-care program: Mothers
receive 16 weeks of fully paid
leave and four weeks of unpaid
leave, and fathers can tap into

On-site child care is a rare perk
these days. Fortune estimates
that only 4 percent to 8 percent
of employers provide this
benefit.

From an HR and benefits
perspective, Patagonia comes
pretty close to the definition of
an ideal employer.

Carol Harnett is a widely
respected HR consultant, speaker,
writer and trendspotter. Follow
her on Twitter via @carolharnett
and on her video blog, The Work.
Love.Play.Daily. Send questions or
comments to hreletters@lrp.com.

Let My People Go … Surfing

The recent paradeof sexual-assaultand harassment revelations has often beenaccompanied by comments such as this: Wherewas the HR department?

There is a misunderstanding about what an
HR department can do on its own. Although
employees may feel other wise, HR is not the
police, nor an arm of the government, and it isn’t
required to address behavior that violates the
laws that govern the workplace.

Although some like to think that HR is a
“profession,” it isn’t like the Office of the General
Counsel, where the top official is an attorney
bound by a detailed code of professional
norms. Those attorneys can be disbarred and
prosecuted for ignoring illegal activity at work
or covering it up. Their legal obligation is to
the corporation, per se, rather than to their
immediate bosses.

Human resource managers, on the other
hand, take their cues from the top executives.

Even the chief human resource officer reports
to someone, typically the CEO. What if the CEO
is the one causing the problem?

Yes, HR could go to the chair of the board
of directors—if there is a board of directors
and if the CEO isn’t also the chair of the board.

I have seen cases where the HR department
went to the board over the CEO’s misconduct,
and still nothing happened. I’ve also heard of
cases where the HR head got fired for going
to the board about the CEO’s behavior (the
board talked to the CEO about it, who then fired
the head of HR). Even if HR gets the right to
investigate, if it is a “he said, she said” story, and
if the “he” is the CEO, this isn’t going anywhere.

Let’s be clear: It is still not a career-building
move to go over your boss’ head to secure an

Can HR End Sexual Harassment?

investigation of him or her. CEOs have alwaysbeen powerful, but we have made them evenmore so in recent decades with the push byinvestors for “accountability” and performance.This story is not going to end up where youmight expect, though, because the counter-examples are the many companies that havepushed out CEOs and other top leaders forsexual misconduct: Boeing, HP and Best Buy,just to name a few. What’s different about them?These are companies governed by rules, andthey take that seriously.At many of the companies where sexual-misconduct stories have appeared, the founderis still there, and the founder is the problem.These companies are not governed by rules,even if they have rules in place—they operate asextensions of the founder and his personality.So this is a story about the importance ofgovernance by rules rather than by individuals.A company where the HR department coulddo a serious investigation of the CEO is alsoa company that is likely to be honest about itsaccounting, about its environmental record andabout everything else.

This is really an achievement: We have
created systems that constrain our leaders from
acting badly. It is so common in large companies
that we take it for granted—which is why we
may be forgiven for thinking that, in these cases
of bad behavior, an HR department would have
stopped it.

Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor
Professor of Management and director of the
Center for Human Resources at The Wharton
School of the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. Send questions or comments to
hreletters@lrp.com.